


Debt

by ambiguously



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Genre: F/F, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: "You owe me from last time."
Relationships: Enfys Nest/Qi'ra
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17
Collections: Star Wars Rare Pairs 2020





	Debt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Taranis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taranis/gifts).



The holodisc had arrived in a set of other packages. Qi'ra was supposed to have people to screen the things that came across her desk. Her secretary Korlo had started wearing the hungry look of someone who wanted to get his promotion the old-fashioned way. Crimson Dawn had an entire wardrobe full of dead men's shoes. Qi'ra herself intended never to vacate her own high fashion pumps for the sake of someone else's ambitions. Korlo was testing her. Today he gave her an unannounced hologram. Tomorrow she'd be poisoned.

She almost dropped the disc into the waste incinerator, then paused. Something told her this was important. Maul had ranted at her about the Force, insisting it was a real thing that moved and shaped the galaxy. Qi'ra had her doubts. Some people were born with extra psychic powers, fair enough. That didn't affect the lives of anyone else except those unfortunate enough to have to deal with them.

Qi'ra didn't believe in the Force. She did believe in her own instincts, and those had kept her alive.

She slid the holodisc into the player.

_"I need your help."_

The image was of a too-familiar face. Enfys Nest was feared with her mask on. Without it, she was a young woman, easy to dismiss or intimidate, or so a fool would think.

_"Four of my people are being held in an Imperial detention facility. I have codes that could get a Bindisian Ambassador inside the facility."_

There was no way Enfys or any of her wretched people could pass as a dignitary. Qi'ra had spent her entire adult life pretending to be someone she wasn't.

_"You owe me from last time. As a thank you, the Cloud Riders are happy to let Crimson Dawn take all the profit from the job. My intel says there's a large supply of bullion being guarded at the same facility."_

The message included coordinates and a time to meet. They always did.

Qi'ra sat back in her chair, tapping her desk until she noticed she was doing so. She folded her fingers into her palm. Tells were beneath her. So was running at the beck and call of someone who was technically her enemy. There'd never been love lost between Crimson Dawn and the raiders who harried their every mission.

Almost every mission.

Qi'ra didn't know when or how this arrangement had developed to this point. She only knew that there were times she could send a message to the leader of her enemies, or said enemy could contact her here, and the other would come.

She told herself it was practical. She told herself it was investment in her future, forging alliances even with her foes. She told herself it had nothing to do with the rare smiles Enfys gifted her with when one of their mutual plans worked. She told herself that some filthy, sweat-stained revolutionary with more beliefs than common sense could never sway Qi'ra from her own self-designated ultimate goal of surviving as long as she could.

She told herself she didn't owe Enfys from last time, that was a lie. If anything, she'd saved their lives, not Enfys and if anything, she should be the one calling in the favor. She told herself going on this mission was a bad idea, and Korlo would use it to speed up his own plans to replace her, and shooting another secretary meant so much annoyance as she recruited and trained a new one.

She replayed the hologram and paused it, watching how Enfys moved, how her eyes held Qi'ra's even though it was a recording. Qi'ra could play a Bindisian Ambassador. Enfys could pass as her bodyguard, and had four times. The last time they'd teamed up, she'd posed as Qi'ra's wife. Qi'ra had spent half the mission contemplating not returning to Crimson Dawn after their work was complete. She told herself now that had been a foolish thought, and had nothing to do with sense and everything to do with the wine that had been running through her veins that evening, and the kisses they'd made convincing enough to get past the embarrassed guards, and the soft expression Enfys had given her as she'd pulled away as soon as they were through the door.

She ought to say no. But she knew she never would.

Qi'ra pressed the comm button. "Korlo, tell the hangar to ready my shuttle. I'll be gone for a few days. And make an appointment in my schedule. You and I should meet when I return." If, she thought, and she didn't know where that thought came from. The short, enticing word followed her back to her room and lingered in her mind as she packed more clothes than she needed. If she came back, she could put them away again.


End file.
